1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates generally to the life sciences industry and more particularly to automated testing system arrangement using a docking system for conducting high throughput screening in the life sciences industry.
2. Background Art
High throughput screening (HTS) is a well-known form of scientific experimentation in the life sciences industry which enables a research facility to conduct a large quantity of experiments at the same time. Specifically, in one form of high throughput screening which is well-known in the art, a plate is provided which includes a large number of isolated, miniaturized wells (e.g., 96, 384 or 1536 wells per plate), whereby a unique compound is disposed within each well. An array of different substances is then deposited into each well with the promise of discovering a desired reaction. In this manner, high throughput screening can be used to subject a particular substance to an entire library of compounds at the same time and, as a result, is highly useful in the discovery of new medicines, vaccines and biopharmaceuticals.
High throughput screening is often performed in an environmentally-controllable enclosure which is commonly referred to as a cell or chamber. As can be appreciated, a laboratory cell affords researchers with an enclosed environment that is most suitable for testing, which is highly desirable.
High throughput screening also traditionally relies on automation to conduct assays which are otherwise repetitive in nature, provided that the close control and intricate manipulative skills of human operators can be faithfully replicated using conventional robotics (e.g., multi-axis robots). Various types of laboratory automation tools are presently used in conjunction with high throughput screening.